Today is Friday the 13th, known by many as the unluckiest day of the year (as most of Jason Voorhees’s victims would probably agree). Indeed, in the Anglo-Saxon world and in some other parts of the globe, Friday the 13th still has the potential to paralyse and invoke irrational dread. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, announced that an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the US are affected by this day – so much so that they would go out of their way to avoid having to face the day – thus making it the most feared day in the history. Continue reading →